Q&A: Dance-pop artist Jessica Sutta says “Love is universal”

July 02, 2015

Just two days before the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the freedom to marry, Jessica Sutta released the new music video for her song, "Let It Be Love." Watching it now, the song and video seem to have predicted Friday's huge marriage win. "Is it you, the love that I've been waitin' for? / Call my name, say it loud and clear," Sutta sings. "Is it true that I don't have to wait no more?" And, on Friday, the highest court in the nation answered her call -- and we are no longer waiting for the freedom to marry.

Jessica Sutta, who is bisexual, was filled with joy when she heard the news that the freedom to marry was coming to the entire nation. The news was personal, emotional, and inspiring to her -- and proved what her music video was all about.

Jessica Sutta, formerly of the musical group The Pussycat Dolls, spoke to Freedom to Marry about what the ruling meant to her.

Q: What about love inspires you to speak out for the LGBT community?

Sutta: Love is love. When I fall in love with someone their gender is not a factor. It is their heart that wins me over. Love is universal. There are no rules or pre-conceptions other than the one's we create in our minds. I have fallen in love with hearts belonging to the female gender. Love does not have boundaries in its truest form and neither should marriage. I am so happy about this long overdue victory, for my friends, the LGBT community and most of all for humanity. We are one giant step closer to the global realization of the one thing that keeps us all connected...love.

Q: What were your goals with this music video?

Sutta: I really loved doing it. It was exactly what I wanted to accomplish with the music video. The song is just solely about love and finding love and seeing life through love. I just wanted to find the story of the song, and I wanted to do it with me not in it. I wanted it to be carried by the beautiful angelic girl who was the lead girl in it to show all the trials and tribulations of her life. Everything that she did she even though her parents were fighting, everything transcends with love. Even though she came home to fighting parents all the time, she was there to help the homeless, she would help the elderly, even though she was bullied, she still loved, and I think that’s just a beautiful message to spread, especially nowadays. Our world needs a lot of love.

Q: Why do you think it's important that you speak out on this issue?

Sutta: First of all, the LGBT community is everything to me. It’s been my platform for as long as I can remember. It’s partly because all my friends are gay, and I unfortunately had to watch them suffering all their lives for who they love. So it was always a passion for me to have a platform for people who couldn’t be heard. With everything happening with equality, I guess it was the right timing, but it was just basically to show that it’s time we see everything for the truth. That truth is we just need to see love. I think it would change the whole world.

Q: How was the idea for this music video created?

Sutta: When I sat with the director, Jose Omar, I said there’s a lot of pain and suffering happening in the world, especially in the LGBT community. I just would like to make a video that would touch hearts and would make people tear up. I don’t want to be dressed up in a little outfit dancing around, everyone’s seen that. I’d rather really help someone, so I guess that was kind of what we wanted to achieve with the music video. I feel like we really did, I really feel like it was very heartfelt, it’s very honest, I have an amazing cast of actors that really went there. They turned out chills on set, it was just so real. And I really thought that was really important, that the world really needs that.

Q: How do you think your music can work towards ensuring quality for the LGBT community?

Sutta: I’m very honest with my music. I think that music is that universal language of love and happiness. Everyone can get music. I’m really honest with my songwriting and the songwriters that I’ve worked with so I hope that people can heal through my experiences, because with Feline Resurrection my heart’s definitely out on the table, it’s out there for everyone to see, and I’m very honest with people. And I know music really helps me, especially with when I’m going through hard times in my life. So hopefully my album can heal people.

Q: Tell me about your new album!

Sutta: It’s called Feline Resurrection. I’m very excited. The whole phenomenon behind Feline Resurrection is, when a cat dies and it comes back to life, in this case it came back stronger than ever. It’s about throwing out the old and coming into the new. Because anybody has a second chance at life. Everyone has a chance to always make a difference, to always change, to always better themselves. And that’s how I feel about the album, what Feline Resurrection means to me making it and writing it. And just being a part of it and creating the music videos. It’s certainly exciting. we’re shooting a visual album on top of it, so all the music is going to be brought to life through music video, which I’m so excited about, and we’re definitely taking a lot of risks, and we’re really going there, so it really means a lot to me as an artist to have this creativity and this freedom.

Q: So where were you when you heard about the Supreme Court Ruling?

Sutta: I woke up to a text message from my friend Leo, and he said: "It passed." And then I went on Instagram, and it was like a rainbow. It was just such a victorious amazing feeling. I mean, I couldn’t stop crying for about an hour. Because it’s just felt like finally we took a big step and the United States. It’s not even a big step for just the LGBT community, it’s a step for mankind, because we’re all equal and we should just wake up and see that we’re all made up of the same stardust and we have to stop hating each other, and we’re destroying each other. I just feel like that was one of the biggest, most pivotal moments in history from our generation, and it was just one of the best days of my life. It’s something that I feel like we’ve been fighting for for so long. And then it happened.

Freedom to Marry was the campaign to win marriage nationwide. With the Supreme Court victory on June 26, 2015, the work of this strategic campaign – though not the larger movement – was achieved, and Freedom to Marry wound down its operations, closing in early 2016. For inquiries, please email legacy@freedomtomarry.org.